Talented Native American Children

and Youth: A Call for Recognition and

Service Marcia Gentry, Ph.D.,

Jiaxi Wu, and C. Matthew Fugate

Purdue University

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Purposes

1. Examine issues of culturally relevant identification

and programming with gifted, creative, and talented

Native American youth and their educators.

2. Discuss results and implications for practice from

our research with high potential Diné, Lakota, and

Ojibwe students and their educators.

Background

The Unites States Department of Education (USDOE; 1993)

acknowledged that gifted, creative, and talented young people exist

within all cultural and economic groups in a variety of areas of

human endeavor.

This same definition acknowledged outstanding talent of potential of

outstanding talent as recognizable when young people are compared

with others “similar in age, experience or environment” (p. 3).

Talent exists among Native American populations (USDOE, 1993).

Literature is sparse, over generalized, and largely dated.

Background

Gifted, creative, and talented Native American children remain at

risk of continued marginalization.

NA youth experience consistent and severe underrepresentation in

programs for gifted and talented children (Yoon & Gentry, 2009).

They have larger gaps in achievement and lower performance on

measures of achievement than most other cultural groups (Griggs et

al., 2010; Mead et al. 2010).

They are more likely to live in poverty; less likely to graduate from

high school; less likely to attend or graduate from college (DeVoe &

Darling-Churchill, 2008; Faircloth & Tippeconnic, 2010) than other

cultural groups.

Project HOPE+

Having Opportunities Promotes Excellence plus funded by JKCF

Seeks to make Purdue’s gifted summer-residential enrichment

programs accessible to Native American students with high potential

who live in poverty on the Navajo, Standing Rock, and Red Lake

Reservations.

Students’ experiences are being evaluated in the short and long-term.

Affective counseling curricula is being developed and complemented.

College-planning resources are being developed.

HOPE Scale is being tested for its usefulness in identifying talented

youth among these populations.

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Project HOPE+ Goals

Future goals (Gentry, 2011):

1) Serve 62 secondary-aged students from the Navajo, Standing

Rock, and Red Lake reservations in Summer Residential program

for the next three summers;

2) Develop affective curriculum and follow-up materials;

3) Continue validation of HOPE scale for use with secondary and

native youth;

4) Develop longitudinal study of Summer Residential participants;

5) Leverage the evaluation data and experiences of student

participants.

HOPE Scale A culturally relevant identification instrument (Peters & Gentry, in press)

Designed to measure two broad categories: Social and Academic

components of giftedness and talent

Meant to serve as a tool with which to focus a classroom teacher’s

nomination and perceptions of his/her students onto behaviors

When combined with other measures of aptitude and achievement, it can

help locate gifted and talented students from traditionally

underrepresented populations.

Items were not biased for or against either low-income or high-income

groups (Peters & Gentry, 2010).

HOPE Scale

http://purduegeri.wix.com/projecthope#!hope-scale

http://www.geri.education.purdue.edu/

HOPE Scale

Validation of the HOPE Scale for use with three Native American

populations

Sixth through twelfth grade teachers from the Navajo, Red Lake,

and Standing Rock reservations were asked to evaluate each of their

students using the HOPE Scale, and 590 of them have completed

the HOPE Scale to date.

GERI Programming

Developing enrichment opportunities (GERI, 2012)

Making concerted efforts to recruit, enroll, and retain students from

groups typically under-identified and underserved across the

country in gifted and talented programs (Gentry, 2011)

During July of 2011, 12 gifted Diné students from the Navajo

reservation received full scholarships to attend the Summer

Residential program.

During July of 2012, 55 high-ability students from the Navajo,

Standing Rock, and Red Lake Reservations received full scholarships

to participate in the same program.

http://www.geri.education.purdue.edu/youth_programs/SRES/index.

html

GERI Programming

Summer Residential courses included: Geometric Design in Math,

Lego Robotics, Digital Media, Rube Goldbergineering, Forensic

Science, Public Speaking, Game Design, Aerospace Engineering,

Music Video Production (GERI, 2012)

Lego Robotics video

GERI Programming

Counseling and cultural activities

Native American graduate student studying at Purdue as counselor

Trip to the Native American Cultural Center: a Native graduate

student talked about higher-education opportunities and how they

could take what they have learned back to the reservation

Teacher Development

Sensitivity training with program teachers and counselors

A web-based module on underserved populations in gifted

education, employing multi-media and case studies to help teachers

understand the nature of high-potential students who come from

poverty and from diverse cultural groups

It has been developed and field-tested as part of a national study on

developing talents among underserved populations (Gentry, 2009).

Teacher Development

Module 1: Nature and Needs of Gifted, Creative, and Talented

Children and Youth

Module 2: Developing Talents in Underserved Populations

Module 3: Curriculum Compacting

Module 4: Schoolwide Enrichment Model—Reading

Module 5: Inquiry and Reflective Practice

Module 6: Differentiation in Language Arts and Mathematics

Module 7: Student Focused Differentiation

Module 8: Total School Cluster Grouping (TSCG)

Module 9: The Social and Affective Development of Gifted Youth

Teacher Development

Teacher Development

Dr. Jean Peterson conducted training with counselors to plan

community-building activities

Developed an affective curriculum that was topic-, development-,

and prevention-oriented for use with secondary-aged students:

Semi-structured discussion session

Topics included stress, anxiety, perfectionism, procrastination,

family and individual transitions, depression, anger, fear, worry

competition, and self-harm

Small-group strategies

Activities related to career development

Teacher Development

Collected survey data of students’ and counselors’ feedback on the

affective curriculum, open-ended questions included: most

memorable topics discussed, opinions about including attention to

social/emotional development, things they wish they could discuss in

the future

Future study: What contents in the affective curriculum are

culturally sensitive? What topics do gifted Native American youth

want to discuss about? What professional development

opportunities can be provided to group leaders and counselors?

On-going Research

Developed a data base to enable long-term follow up with gifted

Native American students:

1) Collected pre and post camp surveys

2) Collected online Student Perceptions of Classroom Quality

instrument (SPOCQ; Gentry, Owen, & Springer, 2001) survey data

Preliminary results from a pilot study on 2011 Summer Residential

participants (10 Diné gifted students) was accepted as a paper

session in AERA 2013 (Wu, Gentry, & Fugate, 2013).

Longitudinal study

Results

During summer 2011, Native American Scholarship recipients

evaluated their experiences in the program as very positive.

Averaging greater than 4 out of 5 points on constructs of Appeal,

Challenge, Choice, Meaningfulness, and Self-efficacy on the SPOCQ

(Gentry, Owen, & Springer, 2001); and on constructs of Interest,

Challenge, Choice, and Enjoyment on the My Class Activities (MCA;

Gentry & Gable, 2001) instrument (Fugate, 2011)

Results

During summer 2012, Native American Scholarship recipients

evaluated their experiences in the program positive as well, as can

be seen from the points (out of 5) on the constructs of Appeal,

Challenge, Choice, Meaningfulness, and Self-efficacy on SPOCQ

survey: High-ability Native American students

(n = 102)

M SD

Appeal 4.11 .70

Challenge 4.12 .64

Choice 4.02 .60

Meaningfulness 3.86 .79

Academic Self-efficacy 3.70 .66

Results

The pilot study on the 10 Diné participants attending 2011 Summer

Residential program yielded five thematic findings (Wu, 2012):

Theme 1, students experienced affirming social interactions with

intellectual peers and teachers.

Theme 2, camp was a life-changing experience.

Theme 3, students were motivated and excited to attend the camp for

next summer.

Theme 4, students had positive academic experiences.

Theme 5, students met challenges that helped them better understand

the world beyond reservation and themselves.

Implications

The pilot study concluded that, if given the opportunity and financial

support to be able to participate in a university-based residential

program designed for gifted youth and to be able to enroll in

courses of high interest, gifted, Native American students from low-

income families will experience academic benefits, enjoy positive

interactions, learn new knowledge, appreciate cultural diversity, and

be exposed to a new perspectives that help them think about their

future education and careers (Wu, 2012) .

Future Studies

Examine the long-term effects of summer programs on gifted Native

American students’ educational aspirations, career choices, and

achievement and to compare these students with peers who have

not participated in similar programs.

Longitudinal study

Implications for Practice

What can you do?

Educate yourself and others in school and out of school

See potential through poverty

Honor and make an effort to understand the culture

Seek potential and provide opportunity

Examine your data for equity

Provide developmental programs

References 1. DeVoe, J. F., & Darling-Churchill, K. E. (2008). Status and trends in the education of American Indians and Alaska Natives: 2008. Washington,

DC: National Center for Education Statistics. Retrieved from http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2008/2008084.pdf

2. Faircloth, S. C., & Tippeconnic, III, J. W. (2010). The dropout/graduation rate crisis among American Indian and Alaska Native students: Failure to

respond places the future of Native peoples at risk. Los Angeles, CA: The Civil Rights Project/Proyecto Derechos Civiles at UCLA;

www.civilrightsproject.ucla.edu

3. Fugate, C. M. (2011). GERI Summer residential program student evaluation report. Unpublished report. West Lafayette, IN: Gifted

Education Resource Institute.

4. Gentry, M. (2009). Developing talents and improving student achievement among traditionally underrepresented populations: An experimental

investigation scaling-up the total school cluster grouping model. Grant proposal funded by the Institute for Education Sciences, 2009-2014.

5. Gentry, M. (2011). Project HOPE+ (Having Opportunities Promotes Excellence for Secondary Students): Providing High-Potential Native American

Youth with Quality Summer Enrichment Programs at Purdue University. Grant proposal funded by the Institute for Education Sciences, 2009-

2014.

6. Gentry, M., & Gable, R. K. (2000). My class activities: A survey instrument to assess students' perceptions of interest, challenge, choice and

enjoyment in their classrooms. Mansfield Center, CT: Creative Learning Press.

7. Gentry, M., Owen, S.V., & Springer, P. M. (2001). Student Perceptions of Classroom Quality. Mansfield Center, CT: Creative Learning Press.

8. Gifted Education Resource Institute. (2012). Summer Residential. Retrieved from

http://www.geri.education.purdue.edu/youth_programs/Summer_Residential/Summer_Residential.html

9. Grigg, W., Moran, R., and Kuang, M. (2010). National Indian education study - part I: Performance of American Indian and Alaska Native students

at grades 4 and 8 on NAEP 2009 reading and mathematics assessments (NCES 2010–462). Washington, DC: National Center for Education

Statistics, Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education.

10. Mead, N., Grigg, W., Moran, R., and Kuang, M. (2010). National Indian Education Study 2009 - Part II: The Educational Experiences of American

Indian and Alaska Native Students in Grades 4 and 8 (NCES 2010–463). National Center for Education Statistics, Institute of Education

Sciences, U.S. Department of Education, Washington, D.C.

11. Peters, S. J., & Gentry, M. (2010). Multi-group construct validity evidence of the HOPE Scale: Instrumentation to identify low-income

elementary students for gifted programs. Gifted Child Quarterly, 54(4), 298-313.

References 12. Peters, S. J. & Gentry, M. (In press). Internal and external validity evidence of the HOPE Teacher Rating Scale.

13. U.S. Department of Education. (1993). National excellence: A case for developing America’s talent. Washington, DC: Government Printing

Office. Retrieved from http://www.eric.ed.gov/PDFS/ED359743.pdf

14. Wu, J. (2012). Perceived effects of summer residential program on gifted Diné youth from low-income families. Unpublished manuscript. West

Lafayette, IN: Purdue University.

15. Wu, J., Gentry, M., & Fugate, C. M. (April, 2013). Perceived effects of a summer residential enrichment program on high-ability Diné youth from

low-income families. Paper to be presented at 2013 Annual Convention of the American Educational Research Association. San Francisco,

CA.

16. Yoon, S. Y., & Gentry, M. (2009). Racial and ethnic representation in gifted programs: Current status of and implications for gifted Asian

American Students. Gifted Child Quarterly, 53(2), 121-136.

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